Jim Leher (May 19, 1934–January 23, 2020) died today. He was one of my heroes.

This website has a mission statement expressed in What I Plan to Do with DanielForrest.org at the top next to Home. In short I want to set up a record of myself in words so that I can look back at it later, and when I die, those who want to know who Danny Forrest was can look at it, danielforrest.org, and dmforrest.smugmug.com to see who I was if they are interested.

One way to know me is to know whom I admire. Jim Lehrer co-founded PBS’s Newshour. He was a journalist who believed that reporting was about the subject matter and not a form of entertainment. He was intelligent but plainspoken.

His Newshour endures in the fashion it was created. It is one of my mental places of refuge. Watching it is a conduit to what is best about America and humanity in general. Jim Lehrer endures through his legacy.

I wish I could have sat down with him to tell him about the Greyhound bus camper I saw in Gaudalupe Mountains National Park. He loved buses and revered reporting in the best sense of what journalism strives to be.